In its second year, the employee-led Lozier Community Grant program supported 50 nonprofit organizations across the country. Recipients were selected by employee committees in all five Lozier locations.  Over the next couple of months, the recipient organizations’ stories of impact will be shared on LozierLink.

Deep in the Pennsylvania countryside, the Central Pennsylvania Clinic is gearing up to provide additional services otherwise out of many people’s budgets. The Clinic started as a Medical home for special children and adults. Dr. Morton took over that vision and built a new clinic providing local care for everyone in the valley with special considerations for Amish clients.

“The Central Pennsylvania Clinic provides comprehensive medical care for patients that have genetic disorders from the plain community, mostly the Amish and Mennonites in the area, but we will also see English patients,” said Executive Director Louise Byler.

For most of those the clinic serves, English describes all other patients who aren’t Amish or Mennonite.

Some of the more common conditions the clinic sees are different seizure conditions, conditions that are related to autism spectrum disorders or behavioral conditions. It also treat patients with different, heart defects, for instance, no heart failure or different holes in the heart.

“There’s, quite a few Amish that live in this area, so instead of the Amish having to hire drivers to take them down to Lancaster, to the Strasburg clinic to see the specialists down there, then they can just come right here, right in their own community and in their own neighborhood,” Byler said.

This also saves them money, which makes the clinic more available to them. If they were to have a health crisis they won’t have to go to Lancaster to get the help that they need. The clinic is moving towards not only treating their medical, genetic, medical condition, but also providing other health care things that they need, such as dental, family and eye doctors.

“The dental clinic is very critical because many of the special children are very incapacitated and they can’t, really communicate or anything,” Byler said. “Any child with special needs, you know, to take care of their teeth, but it’s very difficult to find a dentist who’s willing to work with a child or an adult with special needs who might not be as cooperative as someone who doesn’t have special needs.”

The dental facility area framed when Lozier visited in 2023.

Finishing the dental space has been a project that has been going on for a long time, and Byler says having those services on site would be very greatly appreciated by the clinic’s patients and and and their families.

“We are very appreciative of Lozier for giving us that grant, because since we are funded by donations and auctions and dinners, that money goes to pay for our operating budget, and there really isn’t much money left over for extra special projects like this building project that you see here,” Byler said. That’s what gets us through to get this project finished is is a grant like what Lozier is giving us, so we really appreciate it.”

The Lozier Community Grant will support the clinic’s lower floor expansion, building a dentistry specializing in dental care for locals and those with special considerations, giving everyone the option of care with no limits.

To learn more about the Central Pennsylvania Clinic, visit their website. For details on the Lozier Community Grant program, click here.